Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Law
Protecting Rights In The Age Of Terrorism: Challenges And Opportunities, Rosa Brooks
Protecting Rights In The Age Of Terrorism: Challenges And Opportunities, Rosa Brooks
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Depending on whom you speak to these days (and the mood in which you find them), international law is either practically moribund, or it's more vibrant and important than it has been for years. To take the good news story first, international law issues have been at the forefront of public discourse over the past few years. Pick your issue: the U.N. Charter and the international law on the use of force? The Convention Against Torture? The Geneva Conventions? You'll find it on the front page these days. Journalists are phoning international law professors for background briefings, and students are …
Liberalism, Torture, And The Ticking Bomb, David Luban
Liberalism, Torture, And The Ticking Bomb, David Luban
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Torture used to be incompatible with American values. Our Bill of Rights forbids cruel and unusual punishment, and that has come to include all forms of corporal punishment except prison and death by methods purported to be painless. Americans and our government have historically condemned states that torture; we have granted asylum or refuge to those who fear it. The Senate ratified the Convention Against Torture, Congress enacted antitorture legislation, and judicial opinions spoke of "the dastardly and totally inhuman act of torture.” Then came September 11.
Torture's Truth, Louis Michael Seidman
Torture's Truth, Louis Michael Seidman
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
In this Article, I argue that the obstacles to having a serious conversation about torture are exacerbated by a truth that torture teaches us - a truth that we cannot afford fully to know and, so, frantically try to obscure. Law is about respect for commitments and limits, and the existence of torture challenges the possibility of such respect. If we are prepared to torture, then, it would seem, we are prepared to do anything, and the restraint that law purports to impose upon us is a fraud. Torture's truth, then, is that all of our promises to ourselves and …